BLOOD RUN

Episode 9: The Missing Piece

Jack Carter had learned to recognize danger in many forms.

Sometimes it arrived carrying a weapon. Sometimes it wore a government uniform. And sometimes it came from someone who had once promised to protect him.

Tonight, danger had his mother's face.

He stood beneath the shelter of a closed shop in Baltimore, staring at his phone after Daniel Reed's call ended.

She was the one who selected our team.

Three years earlier, Jack and Daniel had entered Operation Nightfall believing they were protecting their country. By the end of the mission, their team had been destroyed, Daniel had disappeared, and Jack had been declared dead.

Now Daniel was telling him that Elena Carter had chosen the team herself.

Maya Brooks watched him carefully.

"Jack, we need to get somewhere safe before we make any decisions."

He slipped his phone into his pocket.

"I'm not going back to the facility."

"Then where are we going?"

"To find Daniel."

"And if he's lying?"

Jack looked at her.

"Then I'll hear it from his mouth."

Maya sighed. "You understand that every person connected to this operation has given us a different version of the truth?"

"Yes."

"And you still want to run toward the next person who calls?"

"No," Jack replied. "I want to stop letting them control the conversation."

He started walking.

Maya followed.

Neither of them noticed the vehicle moving slowly behind them.

Inside, a man spoke into a phone.

"Jack Carter is on the move."

A voice answered.

"Keep him alive."

The man glanced at the road.

"And the woman?"

There was a brief silence.

"Especially the woman."

The call ended.

Jack and Maya reached a small hotel shortly after midnight. They chose a room away from the reception area and kept the curtains closed.

Maya placed her laptop on the table.

"I've been thinking about Daniel's call," she said. "If he really found the original Nightfall orders, he may have discovered something that the Founders couldn't erase."

"Or Cross wants me to believe Daniel found them."

"That's possible too."

Jack sat down.

"What do we know about the original orders?"

Maya opened the records recovered from the Black File.

"Your team was originally assigned to retrieve evidence from a secure archive. The mission was approved under Hayes's credentials, but the objectives were changed shortly before deployment."

"And the change sent us into the ambush."

"According to the records, yes."

Jack stared at the screen.

"Daniel said my mother selected our team."

Maya opened another file.

"There's something I didn't tell you earlier."

Jack looked up.

"What?"

"When we recovered the Black File, I found a personnel reference attached to the Nightfall review. It listed an external adviser who had recommended your team."

"Who?"

"The name was removed. But the reference number matches the one on your mother's personnel record."

Jack stood.

"Elena."

"Possibly."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because a reference number isn't proof. I wanted to verify it first."

Jack paced across the room.

His mother had claimed she tried to warn the team. Daniel claimed she had selected them. Both statements could be true, but together they suggested a much darker possibility.

Perhaps Elena had helped send them into Nightfall before changing her mind.

Perhaps she had tried to save them after realizing what she had done.

Or perhaps she had been manipulating them all along.

Jack stopped pacing.

"Can you trace the number?"

"I've been trying. Most of the associated records are sealed."

"Can you get around that?"

Maya gave him a tired look.

"I can investigate it. But I'm not going to pretend every locked door can be opened in five minutes."

Jack nodded.

"Fair enough."

She returned to the laptop.

Then her expression changed.

"Jack."

"What?"

"I've received a message."

"From Daniel?"

"No. It's an encrypted message from an address associated with the original Nightfall archive."

She turned the screen toward him.

The message contained a location and a single sentence.

COME BEFORE DAWN. BRING THE BLACK FILE. TRUST NO ONE WHO ARRIVES FIRST.

Jack read it twice.

"That's Daniel."

"How can you be sure?"

"I can't."

Maya closed the laptop.

"At least you're learning."

Jack picked up his jacket.

"Let's go."

The location was an abandoned railway depot outside the city.

The building stood beside a line of unused tracks, its windows dark and its walls covered in peeling paint. Mist drifted across the ground.

Jack and Maya arrived shortly before four in the morning.

They remained near the entrance, watching the building.

"Someone's inside," Maya whispered.

A faint light appeared behind one of the windows.

Jack moved toward the doorway.

"Daniel?"

A voice answered from the darkness.

"You're late."

Daniel Reed stepped into the light.

He looked thinner than Jack remembered. His hair was longer, and exhaustion had settled into his face. But his eyes were the same eyes Jack had known during years of training and dangerous assignments.

For a moment, neither man spoke.

Then Daniel looked at Maya.

"You brought someone."

"She's the reason I'm still alive," Jack replied.

Daniel gave a short, humorless laugh.

"That's something, at least."

Jack stepped closer.

"Why did you call me?"

Daniel reached inside his jacket and pulled out a folded document.

"Because I finally found the original Nightfall orders."

He handed it to Jack.

The document was old, but its classification marks remained visible. Unlike the copies they had found earlier, this version included the original approval chain and the names of several people involved.

Jack read the first page.

His name appeared in the assignment list.

So did Daniel's.

And below them was the name of their commanding officer.

Richard Hayes.

But the most important line appeared at the bottom of the second page.

TEAM RECOMMENDATION: ELENA CARTER.

Jack's fingers tightened around the document.

"It's real?"

"As far as I can verify," Daniel replied. "I found it in an offline archive that hadn't been connected to the main intelligence network in years."

Maya examined the paper.

"How did you get access?"

Daniel ignored the question.

Jack looked at him.

"Why didn't you tell me earlier?"

"Because I didn't know whether you'd believe me."

"You could have tried."

Daniel's expression hardened.

"After what happened at Nightfall, you weren't exactly easy to reach."

"I didn't abandon you."

Daniel looked away.

For years, he had believed the official story. He had believed Jack had escaped while the rest of the team was left behind.

But the evidence had begun to unravel.

"I know," Daniel finally said.

Jack went still.

"What?"

"I said I know you didn't abandon me."

The words hung between them.

Jack had imagined hearing them a thousand times. He had imagined anger, relief, and even forgiveness.

He hadn't expected the emptiness that followed.

"Then why are you still hunting me?" Jack asked.

Daniel's eyes darkened.

"Because Cross told me you were the only person who could lead me to the people responsible. He made me believe that if I found you, I'd find the truth."

"And now?"

"Now I know Cross was feeding me lies."

Maya stepped closer.

"What made you change your mind?"

Daniel unfolded another document.

"A recording."

He placed a small device on a nearby table and pressed play.

Static filled the room.

Then Elena Carter's voice emerged.

"Operation Nightfall is approved. Jack Carter and Daniel Reed are the strongest candidates. They have the experience to recover the evidence and the discipline to protect it."

Jack felt a chill move through him.

The recording continued.

A second voice asked, "And if the Founders interfere?"

Elena answered, "Then we proceed with the contingency."

The recording ended.

Jack stared at the device.

"What contingency?"

Daniel shook his head.

"I haven't found that part."

Maya looked at the document again.

"Could this recording have been edited?"

"It could have," Daniel said. "But the original orders support the same conclusion. Elena recommended our team."

Jack turned away.

His mother had told him she tried to warn them. The recording suggested she had approved their involvement in the first place.

He needed answers.

And he needed them from her.

Before he could speak, a sound came from outside the depot.

Engines.

Several vehicles were approaching.

Daniel moved toward the window.

"Someone followed you."

Jack looked at him.

"Did you bring anyone?"

"No."

Maya checked the rear exit.

"We need to move."

Daniel grabbed the documents.

"There's a service tunnel beneath the depot. It leads to the other side of the tracks."

They hurried toward the back of the building as voices sounded outside.

Jack glanced once at the original orders.

His mother's name was still visible.

ELENA CARTER — TEAM RECOMMENDATION.

He folded the document and put it away.

Whatever happened next, he would no longer accept half the truth.

The tunnel opened onto a quiet service road several streets away.

They emerged into the early morning darkness, breathing hard.

Daniel leaned against the wall.

"That was too close."

Maya looked at him.

"Who were those people?"

"I don't know. But they knew where we were meeting."

Jack studied Daniel.

"You said you found the original orders in an offline archive. Who else knew about it?"

"Nobody."

"Think carefully."

Daniel shook his head.

"Jack, I spent three years looking for answers. I didn't tell Cross about the archive. I didn't tell Hayes. I didn't tell anyone."

Maya checked her phone.

"We need to contact the president."

Jack nodded.

"Mitchell needs to see the orders."

Daniel stepped forward.

"No."

Jack looked at him.

"What do you mean, no?"

"If Cross has people inside the presidential security network, sending these documents to Mitchell could expose everything we have."

"Mitchell is trying to stop Blackout."

"Or that's what he wants us to believe."

Jack frowned.

"You think the president is involved?"

"I think we don't know enough to trust anyone."

Maya folded her arms.

"That sounds familiar."

Daniel looked at her.

"I'm serious. Someone altered Hayes's credentials. Someone forged the president's signature. Someone changed the Nightfall orders. And someone knew we would meet here."

Jack understood the point.

They had evidence of a conspiracy, but not a complete picture of its members.

Every new discovery seemed to lead to another locked door.

"We need to find the contingency," he said.

Daniel nodded.

"I may know where it is."

He reached into his pocket and removed a photograph.

It showed an old building surrounded by trees. A faded sign stood beside the entrance.

CARTER RESEARCH FOUNDATION.

Jack stared at it.

"My father owned that place."

"According to the records, it closed twenty years ago," Daniel said. "But the original Nightfall orders contain a reference to a private archive connected to the foundation."

Maya studied the photograph.

"If the contingency was stored there, it might explain why the Founders couldn't erase it."

Jack looked at Daniel.

"Why didn't you go there yourself?"

"Because I needed you to see the orders first. And because the archive may contain something only your family can access."

Jack thought of the memory card Thomas had given him.

His father had known more than he admitted.

His mother had approved Nightfall.

And Daniel had finally stopped believing the lies Cross had fed him.

The pieces were beginning to fit together, but the picture they formed was becoming more disturbing.

Jack put the photograph away.

"We go to the foundation."

By sunrise, Senator William Cross had received a report about the railway depot.

He stood in his office, reading the message while the city woke outside his window.

Jack had escaped.

Daniel had escaped.

And the original Nightfall orders were no longer secure.

Cross placed the report on his desk.

A woman stood beside the window.

Elena Carter.

"You said Jack would come alone," Cross told her.

"I said he would come looking for answers."

"And now he has Daniel."

"Daniel was always going to find out."

Cross turned toward her.

"You should have destroyed the original orders."

"I couldn't."

"Why?"

Elena's expression remained steady, but her hands trembled slightly.

"Because if the truth is ever exposed, I want there to be something that survives your version of events."

Cross studied her for several seconds.

Then he opened a drawer and removed a photograph.

It showed Jack standing beside Thomas Carter outside the research foundation.

"This is where he'll go next."

Elena's face changed.

"You can't send them there."

"Why not?"

"Because you don't know what's inside."

Cross smiled.

"Actually, I do."

He placed the photograph on the desk.

"The foundation contains the final piece of Protocol Blackout."

Elena shook her head.

"No. Thomas removed it years ago."

"That's what he told you."

Cross walked toward the window.

"The final piece was never a machine, Elena. It was never a file. It was never a password."

He turned back toward her.

"It was your son."

Elena stared at him.

For the first time that morning, she looked genuinely afraid.

"That's impossible."

"Your husband designed the system. You created the safeguards. But the Founders needed someone who could authorize the final stage without triggering the protections you built."

Elena's voice dropped.

"Jack was a child."

"Exactly."

Cross opened another document.

It contained an old personnel record, a childhood photograph of Jack, and a code that matched the one on his military identification.

PROTOCOL BLACKOUT — FINAL AUTHORIZATION SUBJECT: JACK CARTER.

Elena took a step back.

"You told me he would never be involved."

Cross's expression hardened.

"And you believed me."

He placed the document into a folder and closed it.

"Now Jack is going to discover what his parents really built."

Elena looked toward the door.

"He's not going to help you."

Cross smiled coldly.

"He doesn't have to help me."

He picked up his phone.

"He only has to arrive."

Across the city, Jack, Maya, and Daniel were already heading toward the abandoned research foundation.

None of them knew that the next discovery would change the meaning of every event that had brought them together.

Because Protocol Blackout had not been designed merely to control the country.

It had been designed to recognize one person.

And that person was Jack Carter.